December 1 – Sat

The Princess and the Trolls, by John Bauer (1882–1918), was painted as an illustration for "The Changeling", a short story by Helena Nyblom. A watercolour held by the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, it was first published in the 1913 edition of the anthology Among Gnomes and Trolls. It shows the princess Bianca Maria between two trolls in a forest. Bauer's illustrations of fairy tales and children's stories made him a household name in his native Sweden, and shaped perceptions of many fairy tale characters.Illustration: John Bauer

December 2 – Sun

The Nintendo Switch is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released on March 3, 2017. It is a hybrid console, which means it can be used as both a home console and as a portable console. In the home console mode, the main unit is inserted onto a docking station to connect to a television. Alternatively, for portable use, it can be removed from the dock and operated similarly to a tablet computer through its LCD touchscreen. The Switch is the fastest-selling console in Nintendo's history, and the fastest-selling of all time in both Japan and the United States. By September 2018 it had sold 22.86 million units, with sales heavily tied to the critically acclaimed titles The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Super Mario Odyssey.Photograph: Evan-Amos

December 4 – Tue

The McClure Tunnel is a tunnel in Santa Monica, California, which connects Pacific Coast Highway (State Route 1) with the western terminus of the Santa Monica Freeway (Interstate 10). It is 400 feet (120 m) long. The first tunnel on the site was a Southern Pacific Railroad tunnel constructed in 1886. This featured in a brief 1898 film called Going Through the Tunnel, which showed the ocean view appearing to the left as the passenger emerges from the western portal. The rail tunnel was demolished and replaced with the current road tunnel, which opened in 1936. It was named after local newspaper publisher Robert E. McClure in 1979.Photograph: Steve Lyon

This oil painting, Portrait of Pope Julius II, was produced in 1511–12 by the Italian painter Raphael. There are several versions, one of which hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, and was believed for many years to be the original. However, research in 1970 indicated that a version owned by the National Gallery in London is likely the original.Painting: Raphael

December 7 – Fri

Camelopardalis is a large but faint constellation of the northern sky. Introduced in 1612 or 1613 by Petrus Plancius, it represents a giraffe. The brightest stars in Camelopardalis are β Cam, a double star 1,000 light-years from Earth with apparent magnitude 4.03; CS Cam, a 4.21-magnitude variable star; and α Cam, a blue-hued supergiant star of magnitude 4.3. At 5,000 light-years from Earth, α Cam is one of the most distant stars easily visible with the naked eye. The constellation is located in the part of the celestial sphere facing away from the galactic plane, which means it has many distant galaxies visible within its borders. This includes the NGC 2403 galaxy in the M81 Group, located approximately 12 million light-years from Earth.

December 10 – Mon

Swallows, together with martins, form a family of passerine birds known as the Hirundinidae. They are found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. There are around 90 species of Hirundinidae, with the greatest diversity found in Africa, which is thought to be where they evolved as hole-nesters. For the most part swallows are insectivorous, taking flying insects on the wing and using foveae in their eyes to help track prey.

December 16 – Sun

The Fountain of Qayt Bay is a domed public fountain (sabil) located on the western esplanade of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, situated fifty metres west of the Dome of the Rock. Built in the fifteenth century by the Egyptians, it was completed in the reign of Qaitbay, Sultan of Egypt, after whom it is named. Placed on a raised prayer platform, together with a freestanding mihrab, the fountain is a three-tiered structure with a height of more than 13 metres (43 ft), and sits above an underground reservoir.Photograph: Godot13

December 17 – Mon

Lady Dorothy Browne and Sir Thomas Browne is an oil-on-panel painting attributed to English painter Joan Carlile and probably completed between 1641 and 1650. It depicts Thomas Browne, the son of a merchant from Cheshire, who eventually became a physician and author in Norwich; and his wife Dorothy Browne (née Mileham), who came from a land-owning family in Norfolk. The two Brownes are portrayed in contrasting styles, with Lady Dorothy looking directly at the viewer with a pleasant expression while Sir Thomas appears to be staring into the distance. The painting is in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.Painting: Joan Carlile

December 18 – Tue

The kob (Kobus kob) is an antelope found across Central Africa and parts of West Africa and East Africa. It is closely related to the reedbucks and waterbucks and similar in appearance to the impala but more heavily built. Kob have few strong social bonds, but females can live in herds numbering in the thousands. Males are generally territorial, although on densely-populated floodplains some males live in clustered territories known as leks.

This picture shows airborne forces of the 720th Special Tactics Group, based at Hurlburt Field, jumping out of a C-130J Hercules aircraft during water rescue training above Choctawhatchee Bay.Photograph: U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Julianne Showalter

December 20 – Thu

The Church of St. Augustine and St. John, commonly known as John's Lane Church, is a large Roman Catholic church located on Thomas Street in Dublin, Ireland. It was opened in 1874 on the site of the medieval St. John's Hospital, which was founded in around 1180. John's Lane Church is served by the Augustinian Order.

December 21 – Fri

The Wilton Diptych is a small portable diptych of two Baltic oak panels, painted on both sides, set in frames of the same material and joined by two hinges. Dating from around 1395–1399, it is an extremely rare survival of a late Medieval religious panel painting from England. The diptych was painted for King Richard II, who is depicted kneeling before the Virgin and Child in what is known as a donor portrait. He is presented to them by his patron saint, John the Baptist, and by the English royal saints Edward the Confessor and Edmund the Martyr. The inner faces of the panels are in excellent condition for their age, though some glazes have been lost, but the outer faces have paint losses from handling.

This picture shows the lefthand panel of the inside of the diptych, with Richard II and the saints.

December 28 – Fri

The Little Street (Het Straatje) is a painting by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer, dating to around 1657–58. An oil-on-canvas work, it is a relatively small painting, being 54.3 centimetres (21.4 in) high by 44.0 centimetres (17.3 in) wide. It depicts a street in Vermeer's hometown of Delft, one of three he painted of the town, the others being View of Delft and the now lost House Standing in Delft. The painting bears the signature "I V MEER", below the left hand corner below the window. The Little Street is now exhibited at the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam.Painting: Johannes Vermeer

December 31 – Mon

The Sega Game Gear is a handheld game console by Sega, released in various countries between 1990 and 1992. The Game Gear shares much of its hardware with the Sega Master System, and can play Master System games through an adapter. Containing a full-color backlit screen with a landscape format, Sega positioned the Game Gear as a technologically superior handheld to the rival Nintendo Game Boy but due to issues with its short battery life, lack of original titles, and weak support from Sega, the Game Gear was unable to beat the Game Boy. The Game Gear was succeeded by the Sega Nomad in 1995 and discontinued in 1997. It sold approximately 11 million units.Photograph: Evan Amos